Swami and Friends by R. K. Narayan (Vintage International)

R. K. Narayan (1906—2001) witnessed nearly a century of change in his native India and captured it in fiction of uncommon warmth and vibrancy. Swami and Friends introduces us to Narayan’s beloved fictional town of Malgudi, where ten-year-old Swaminathan’s excitement about his country’s initial stirrings for independence competes with his ardor for cricket and all other things British. Written during British rule, this novel brings colonial India into intimate focus through the narrative gifts of this master of literary realism.

R. K. Narayan is one of the most prominent Indian novelists of the twentieth century. Born in 1906, Narayan was the recipient of the National Prize of the Indian Literary Academy, India's highest literary honor. His numerous works "Mr. Sampath-The Printer of Malgudi," "Swami and Friends,"" Waiting for Mahatm"a, and G"ods, Demons and Others," all published by the University of Chicago Press.